Today, the International Camphill Movement consists of more than
90 communities in 19 countries, in remote rural settings, country towns, industrial areas or new
towns. Handicapped children, adolescents and adults, become members of the communities, together
with the co-workers.
More details are available from www.camphill.org.uk.
L'Arche
There are actually two communal
movements of this name, distinguished only by the name of the founder in
brackets. The word L'Arche, derived from Noah's Ark in the Bible, symbolizes a
place of refuge. In French, it refers to the arch of a bridge and implies a
bridging role for the community in bringing people together.
L'Arche (Lanza del Vasto) consists of small communes
scattered around the world, centered on the first commune, founded in southern
France in 1962. The movement's ideology, a combination of Christianity and the
ideas of Ghandi and Tolstoy, includes an equal attitude to all religions,
complete economic equality, simple living and manual labour. The address is: La Communaute de l'Arche, La Borie Noble, 34650 Roqueredonde, France.
L'Arche (Jean Vanier) is an international federation of
communities in which people with an intellectual disability and those who chose
to join them live, work and share their lives together in an atmosphere of
trust, friendship, belonging and forgiveness. The first community came into
being in northern France in 1964. Today the movement numbers 111 communities in
28 countries, with new ones in creation.
For more information have a look at www.larchecanada.org.
People with all kinds of abilities live together in the
communes of L'Arche (Jean Vanier) - from their
website, with thanks
Integrated Community - Integrierte Gemeinde
The Integrated Community is an apostolic association of more than a thousand lay people and priests,
with communities in Germany, Tanzania, New York and Rome. A Community in Hungary is in preparation.
The Integrated Community came into being in 1968 as a partial living answer to such questions as:
What is deficient in our Church when, in spite of the many millions of baptized Christians,
death-bringing dictatorships and ideologies like Communism and National Socialism could arise and rule?
Some people then began to link their lives with one another,
for example by beginning to share looking after the children,
living together or by taking up initiatives together in economic and business fields.
This developed into a new form of life, in which members/families remain responsible
for their own financial and property concerns, but, in concurrence with the Community,
make everything spare available for the missionary tasks. Persons of very differing social classes,
nationalities and denominations let themselves be gathered to the Community.
The members live together in "integration houses" and take up common initiatives in the fields
of manual crafts and art, business enterprises, trade and industry, of medicine and education.
You are welcome to have a look at www.kig-online.de
Contact: Hedwig Fornander Haus,
Schulgraben 2,
D-83646 Bad-Tolz,
GERMANY_______or
mail@katholische-integrierte-gemeinde.de
Read "An International Communal Circle in Israel" - about an organization of
Israeli kibbutzniks and members of the Catholic German "Integrierte Gemeinde".
Yamagishi
The communal movement of Yamagishi was founded in Japan in 1958, based on the original mystic but rational ideas of a
social-philosopher of that name. Today there are more than 30 communes in Japan and 7 communities abroad (in Korea,
Thailand, Switzerland, Brazil, Germany, Australia, and the U.S.).
The aim of Yamagishism is to reconcile human acts with Nature - to bring about a human society of affluence, health,
and natural affection, that is secure and comfortable.
In Yamagishi communes there is no private property, no fixed work hours, no material reward for labour and no internal
financial accounting. Their major occupation is organic agriculture, from the land to the consumer - not "organic" in
the accepted sense of the word, but in accordance with the spirit of the animals or crops being raised.
Other activities include health-maintenance, education, social welfare and computer software development.
Contact:
The Yamagishi Association,
555 Kawahigashi,
Iga-Cho, Ayama-Gun,
Mie-Ken,
Japan
E-mail: katayama_h@yamagishi.or.jp
International Communal Studies Association
The International Communal Studies Association is a multidisciplinary organization providing a common framework
for scholarly exchange regarding communes, intentional communities, collective settlements and kibbutzim
throughout the world. The ICSA functions as a clearinghouse for research projects, encourages comparative studies,
and maintains a list of communal organizations and individuals active in communal and kibbutz research.
The Association holds international and local conferences and publishes a biannual bulletin.
Organization: The
President of ICSA is Professor Dennis Hardy (United Kingdom); immediate past
presidents were Professor Timothy Miller (USA) and Dr. William Metcalf
(Australia). The office, situated in Yad Tabenkin,
Israel, is run by Ruth Sobol, with former Executive Director, Prof.Yaacov Oved,
still active.
The last (eighth) ICSA
Conference was
held in the summer of 2004 in the US (at the former Amana communes). A tour of
various communal sites took place immediately before the conference. The ICSA
website,
http://www.ic.org/icsa/ contains the official report of the Conference. For
brief accounts of the Conference, press
here.
The next ICSA Conference is
planned to take place at the end of June, 2007, at the federation of communes,
Damanhur, Italy.
The
ICSA Bulletin, as from #36, appears on the internet only.
Address:
ICSA
Yad Tabenkin
Ramat Efal
52960
Israel
Tel: 972 35301227
Fax: 972 3534 6376
E-mail: rsoboly-t@bezeqint.net
Communal Studies Association
Our purpose is to study past and present movements that have chosen communal
living and to encourage the restoration, preservation and public interpretation of the communitarian heritage.
Through a scholarly journal, newsletter and a Center for Communal Studies, we facilitate communication and cooperation
among academicians, preservationists, and communitarians.
The association offices are located at
POB 122
Amana
IA 52203
USA
csa@netins.net
http://www.ic.org/csa
Network of Political Communes and Similar Projects in Germany - "Kommuja"
Several communes, based on the secular socialist spirit of the "New Left" of the sixties,
have been joined by dozens of similar-minded groups of variable stability.
They are known informally as "Kommuja" (= Commune-Yes), the name of their journal,
which is brought out several times a year, each time by a different group.
The Network organizes joint meetings and provides mutual aid through social and economic
counseling and the exchange of professional workers. It also has a 'solidarity fund" for
financial support in the hour of need. Recently the idea of a joint "free school" for their children
is being discussed. Above all, a feeling of mutual belonging has been created and a communality
of basic principles has been crystallized.
Their basic principles are: a completely secular outlook, a left-wing political orientation,
devotion to the quality of the environment, special sensitivity towards equality between the sexes,
aversion to all signs of hierarchy in the group, involvement in political frameworks against all
social injustice and manifestations of nationalism and neo-Nazism.
The network has no address, no telephone and no website. It functions by direct contact
between the groups - true anarchism in action!
Similar groups exist in many parts of the world but are not generally linked together.
The Global Ecovillage Network
(GEN).
This is a global confederation of people and communities
dedicated to restoring the land and living "sustainable plus" lives by putting
more back into the environment than they take out. GEN members include: large
networks, ecotowns, small rural ecovillages, urban rejuvenation projects,
permaculture design sites, educational centres and many more.
GEN operates mainly through the offices and volunteers of
its three Regions: The Ecovillage Network of the Americas (ENA), GEN Europe and
Africa and Gen Oceania.
Contact:
http://gen.ecovillage.org
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